Yesterday morning I was checking out my email when a the subject line of “YOU ARE THE DEVIL SCORPION STING”, written in all caps just like you see, so I had to check this one out. Afterwards, I realized that I should have just deleted it. Normally, when people spew their fucktarded opinions at me I just file it in the ‘ol bullshit bucket, but this one was different, this one had a tone I don’t usually get here. Probably to this cunt’s surprise (yes I called you a CUNT) I will not give out her name or her email ( I have mentioned I have the technology to track back you anonymous hit and run email fuckers right?) because her cuntness doesn’t deserve any free publicity. Here’s what gets me, she follows my blog, follows me on Facebook, follows me in Twitter, follows me on Google+, and follows me on Blogcatalog (under her alias), she has for some time now, and all of a sudden I’m the devil himself because I eat beef and other meat. Did she just start reading the posts or something?

Anyway, the just if her message was explaining how fucking evil and sstanlike I am because I eat the flesh of dead animals. I thought I have discussed all of this shit before, haven’t I? I’ve mentioned that there might be things here that might fucking offend some people, I’ve mentioned that this blog isn’t for everyone who sees it, and I’ve mentioned that I don’t give a flying fuck because I do this damn blog for my entertainment because I get tired of just talking to myself. I van make it simple, if you don’t want to eat meat then don’t eat meat. Personally, I eat meat, the end. I do appreciate the fact that this bitch took the time to include a cool picture with her message and I respect non-meat eaters. Its just not the lifestyle for me or my family.

I would like to preface this post by saying that I do not hold a particular or specific belief in God, the Devil, the bible, religion, or any other cult following. I’m here on planet Earth to live my life until my last breath. I hold my own opinions in regards to religion, God, and so forth. I do not ask you to accept my opinions because I know they are mine. I do not write the following post to be inflammatory to others, I write it to illustrate the answer to the question I was asked via an e-mail. This is not justification for my beliefs nor is it defamation of your beliefs.

Recently I received an e-mail which asked me why I think religion (in general) is a hoax or the biggest conspiracy known to mankind. I don’t ever recall saying it either way, but lets not let that stop me from exploring these claims a little further. Lets remember that I was raised Catholic. Lets remember that I wanted to be a Catholic priest. Lets remember my faith in God and religion was lost long ago because in my opinion God tried to kill me and it was man who structured my recovery. Lets remember that these facts in my life serve neither as evidence or truths in religion or Christianity. They are, however, the launching platform for which all of my questions arise. True, I do disagree with organized religion which leads it’s sheeple masses into believing fairytales and trying to establish this as historical fact. True, I do think that religion uses fear and promises to promote itself thru the guises of simple men. True, I think religion preys on the weak-minded by trying to replace common sense with folklore and apocalypticism. However, this isn’t the end, people who put their faith in someone mystical who is overly glorified is strangely bizarre to me since an idol is an idol whether flesh or gold. Conspiracy theories are the nature of the beast, they are human nature, they are what makes us humans strive forth on a quest to find out answers to all the questions we dream up. However, a conspiracy theory has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by conspirators of almost superhuman power and cunning. I’m not saying religion is just a fringe theory, but I’m not saying that it is accurate either. Since when do we, as humans, need to be led, need to follow, or believe in something just to get us thru another day? Well, since the beginning of time. Some follow, some lead, and some question. Which one are you.

Not all people in this world are honest, hard-working, and forthcoming about their intentions. Certainly we can all agree on this fact as a starting point, right? Now, before we get to deep here, before you start gritting your teeth, just remember I’m only expressing my personal opinion. If it is similar to your personal opinion that is fine. If it isn’t similar to your personal opinion that is also fine. I don’t ride the fence with my opinions. I most certainly do not sugar coat my beliefs either. Religion spends more time condemning mankind for its words and actions when it should be embracing mankind because mankind had been the curator of it’s very survival. I won’t tell you how to believe and in return you don’t get to tell me how to believe. Deal? Very well then, now we can get down to the brass tacks of why we are even here today, to why we are even having a discussion about religion, and search for the answers to questions that not only I can have about religion. Fair enough? I’m not bashing religion. I am exploring why religion is not the answer for me. Skeptics such as myself are important in achieving an objective view of reality, however, my skepticism is not to be confused with reinforcing the official biblical storyline.

I consider intelligent cynicism certainly to be a healthy way of thinking. Just remember that some of the greatest discoveries of all time were initially received as blasphemous conspiracy theories. The top two I think about are of the revelation that the earth was not the center of the universe nor the world flat but actually round. Hard pills for most scholars to swallow because the information went against the grain of everything they had ever been led to believe, it went against everything they were ever taught, and it made them wrong. But ignorance is bliss, right? What is it about conspiracy theories as casual as apocalypticism that makes them function as magnetic cores of desire? Religious conspiracy theory functions as a way of jacking up the tension of the world, of sharpening contrasts until they become a simplex chiaroscuro of black and white, good and evil, but never resolve anything, never answer questions, and always leaving its sheeple lost in darkness needing to be herded into a flock. The communal march of the sheeple against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with their neighbors, their community, their nation, their religion, while wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation towards religion. All of the disparate centers of religious power in the world coalesce into a heavy brick, a wall of sinister purpose, something that you can sink your teeth into, throw your weight against, something that justifies an uncompromising fixation and the abandonment of distractions and reservations. People are drawn to this power, people want this power, and this power is always held at bay for the common masses. Why? It instills a sense of dignity and nobility in the fight against a ruthless, expansive evil.

Religion isn’t predicated on the belief that everything must have a reason, quite the opposite, religion needs there to be people seeking answers. Religion sees the world in epic terms, foreclosing the possibility that people might act on much more modest scales of self-indulgence, consolation, or foolishness if there is fear of damnation and apocalypticism. The religious culture has not ever veered away from these ends, it has become primarily a mechanism for the distribution of affects, an apocalyptic fantasy, a self-indulgent addiction, often with a sword in its hand for enforcement. So, why do people believe in God, religion, ghosts, goblins, spirits, the afterlife, or even sasquatch? Two common threads running through these belief systems are called patternicity and agenticity. As the names indicate, patternicity refers to seeing meaningful patterns in meaningless noise. Agenticity refers to seeing mysterious but palpable puppet masters who pull the strings and bring about unexplained phenomena. God is the perfect example of an puppet master. Religion will point out that God is the answer, God is the end all be all, and the word of God will never be questioned without punishment. Again, I can ask why? The ugly side of human nature, as much as we think we have evolved is that patternicity and agenticity are continuously revealed in people’s belief that there is something waiting for us when we die and even a promise of forgiveness for all of our sins. To me the observation of human brains as well as individual are testament to the enormous power and elegance of evolution in molding humans across an incredible hierarchy of individuals and societies through common desire to find answers.

I think in the end religion has historically been used as a mass mind-control to brainwash people and using it as an influencing tool over normal human behavior. Now a days it’s easy to disregard the influence religion has because of the use of mass-media, television, internet, radio, and the written word of papers and magazines. However, verbal communication is still the main tool of control and propaganda put forth by religion worldwide. Religion can’t even have a single collective definition of God. The term ‘God’ can mean anything from the traditional Christian judgemental creationist God all the way to something a lot more abstract like a higher consciousness or a Oneness. Is religion designed to confuse? Is religion meant to weed out the people who might question the existence of God? Is religion a tool of God or a tool of man? Why must religion be used as a tool of social conditioning and mass-population control, using fear of God as the motivation? The masses are taught to believe in the religious text as the absolute truth, with a basis in very simple moral rules, that are clearly quite much more difficult to uphold in practice fully, largely due to much fear-induced control models in terms of twisting real events in order to fit a mythology, designed to be used to control a large number of people by influencing their self-worth and their view of the world through religious propaganda.

Religions keeps their believers in a mind-set that is usually doomed for self-destruction, lowering expectations, fear in the unknown, and a unquestioning, subconscious belief that to seek answers and to question authority is morally wrong, and punishable. All the while dangling a never attainable, at least in this life, and completely as of yet un-proven, paradise afterlife fantasy, where their obedience and constant self-criticism will be rewarded with eternal bliss. Religion will always keeping the followers spiritual beliefs in a static state of infantile unobtainability, thus retarding any spiritual knowledge development. Religion seems to be and often is the only source of information, so what said is believed as they are the ones closest to God. God and religion, in my opinion, cannot be proven without any reasonable doubt and therefore is mankind’s biggest conspiracy theory. Religion is based on having faith in fiction while using the fear of God to control the sheeple. Unfortunately for mankind the answers are not simple, the truth is clouded, and we will always have questions. Its okay to question what we do not understand, its okay to seek different paths for answers, and its okay to stand out from the masses while you are doing all of this.

I cannot give credit to the pictures used in this post. The pictures in this post were found using Google image search.

Need some definitions?

Religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.

Apocalypticism is the religious belief that there will be an apocalypse, a term which originally referred to a revelation of God’s will, but now usually refers to belief that the world will come to an end time very soon, even within one’s own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of catastrophic global event.

Sheeple is a term that highlights the herd behavior of people by likening them to sheep, a herd animal. The term is used to describe those who voluntarily acquiesce to a suggestion without critical analysis or research.

Patternicity is the human tendency to seek patterns in random information.

Agenticity is the capacity of an agent (a person or other entity, human or any living being in general, or soul-consciousness in religion) to act in a world.

Judgemental is having or displaying an excessively critical point of view.

Recently I received an e-mail which asked “How can you continuously besmirch our Lord the savior Jesus Christ?” and that wasn’t all she asked. She asked allot of questions about why I hate everyone and everything. I don’t think I have been asked such specific questions so I wanted to share so I could explore out-loud what I am thinking. Usually I get asked “why?” allot or I get told, in simple terms, “to go to hell” for the most part. People are so judgemental of what others have to say. Granted, I do write about a few sensitive subjects on occasion, like race, adoption, smoking and cooking, sheeple, fucktards, religion, atheists, Christians and Christianity, Jesus and God, the Devil, strippers, alcohol and drinking, disabilities, and so forth, so pick something from “A” to “Z” and I have probably written about it.. I don’t expect everyone or anyone to share in on my personal opinion, if you do then you do and if you don’t then so be it, no hard feelings either way on my part. The only qualifications I have to have my opinions is the simple fact that I’m a human being sharing this planet with many others so I get to see allot from my point of view. So, back to why I’m writing this post.

“How can you continuously besmirch our Lord the savior Jesus Christ?” That’s an accusation and a question all rolled up in one. To be honest, besmirch was a new word to me, not one previously in my limited redneck vocabulary, so I had to look it up to see what it means. Here’s what I found. the definition of besmirch (biˈsmərCH): to damage the reputation of (someone or something) in the opinion of others or to make dirty; to soil. Now the term continuously: uninterrupted in time, sequence, substance, or extent. Now, I’ve looked back in review, over the general contents included in my blog. Guess what I found. Nothing, in my opinion, that would suggest a continuous or even a partial besmirching of anything, in fact there isn’t one single thing that has space on my blog that gets continuous commitment. Now, if you want to talk about what I have had to say about the freaks in The Westboro Baptist Church that’s a different story, I mean, come on, is it normal for a group of people claiming to be Christians doing God’s work to have their website address as “godhatesfags”. Perhaps I’m the only person on the planet that doesn’t think that’s normal. Now, if that is Christian bashing then some of y’all need to check to make sure you are praying to the right idol. So, I’m at a loss with the concerns that I’m besmirching Jesus Christ anywhere ever here on my blog or in person. Just because I don’t believe in God or Jesus doesn’t mean I hate them or that I wish to damage their reputation. When I talk about Christianity in general it is because the “news” is on the radio, the papers, on the internet somewhere, and occasionally the information comes home from church with my wife. Still doesn’t make me a Christian hater. A better description would be a person who chose not to be sucked into Christian conformity.

So, what am I trying to get at here? Not sure, but I hope to have that figured out before we are done here. All I know is that I am a human being just trying to live my life the best way I know how. That’s all I have to offer, no more, no less. I return now with fresh thoughts after an extended lunch hour. I suppose I understand the judgemental nature of the human animal, we tend to judge and assume what we don’t know simply because we have never learned to do it any other way. Meaning? People tend to pick one point and focus on it with such fury that they become blinded by everything else, like the truth for example. I’m comfortable with myself within my own skin, with my thoughts, my actions, my life, and what I write about right here. I don’t hate anyone that I know of, with the exception of my ex-wife who is the queen of evil cunts. Other than my personal thoughts about her, I have no problems with people. I do, however, reserve the right to have an opinion or three about daily observations that I witness on a day-to-day basis. It’s just that damn simple. If, for whatever reason, you or someone you know, falls into the subject, topic, or category I happen to be discussing and you feel it’s like I’m pouring salt into your open wound then that is all on you because all I am doing is talking, I didn’t make what I’m talking a part of your life, you did. So, there you have it. Did it answer all of your questions? I hope not because I wasn’t trying to answer anyone’s questions. Look, I’m just here doing my thing, just living my life, and trying not to be so serious all the time. You should try it sometimes, it’s nice.

Last night the time finally came to do the deed of tasting the Dartmoor Devil white chocolate. I waited until everyone was home so we could all have a sample of what the Devil white chocolate had to offer. After close examination of the packaging I realized it was sealed very tight. Normally one can smell chocolate through the wrapper but this wrapper was different, it was sealed plastic. With my family watching I was able to open the packaging with out destroying it all. We were, however, not going to consume the entire candy bar. After I opened the wrapper I became very worried, the chocolate still had no smell. At first I was hesitant when breaking off pieces for everyone to sample. I broke off four pieces, all about the size of my pinkie finger nail.

I gave everyone their piece, counted down from three, and in our mouths the chocolate went. The chocolate gives you just enough time to realize it has really good flavor and the stinging began which was followed by the burn and before we knew it we had broke out into a full blown sweat. Noticeably my eyes began to tear up as I watched the reactions of everyone else. We all were feeling the same pain. As the burn sets in your nose begins to drip a bit as well. I think the aftermath was the funniest. My daughter and son grabbed ice cold bottled water to extinguish their flames which worked about as well as putting water on a grease fire, it just spreads it. My wife went for trusty glass of sweat tea and it had little impact for her as well. I poured a glass of milk, drank it, problem solved.

To answer the question if it is hot or not because I know that is the burning question would be too easy, but the answer is yes, yes it is hot, yes it stings, and yes the flavor of the chocolate was fantastic. For me the chocolate stood out because as a diabetic I steer away from chocolate, yet chocolate is still my favorite, especially white chocolate. I am in no way immune to the heat of the Bhut Jolokia peppers in this chocolate bar, however it isn’t my first rodeo dance with the Bhut Jolokia either. Those of y’all that have been around for a while know I cook and how I cook, so I have grown accustomed to a certain factor in what I eat. Eventhough my wife and daughter enjoyed the chocolate, they want to never have anything to do with it again. My son enjoyed it, he wanted more, so we shared another chunk. What the hell, our tongues were already numb.

Was it really that damn hot? In my opinion, to the pepper virgin or pepper amateur, it is hot. Even for myself it had a serious kick in the heat department as well as a really wicked bite that truly left a stinging sensation in your mouth. This is round one of my battle with the Dartmoor Devil as I fully intend to incorporate it into my version of the Crown Royal cookies we will be making real soon, maybe even as soon as today, who knows.

So, once again, I would like to thank RPD for providing my family and I with an experience and I am sure a story that will be told many times down the road. I see myself offering tidbits of this chocolate to other family members and I will probably forget to mention that the chocolate bites back. Stick around boys and girls, the fun is just beginning so see y’all the next time.

Today was an excellent day to be me. A while back I posted a thread @ BC requesting that somebody buy some Dartmoor Devil chocolate for me for my birthday coming up this November. As serious as I was being I never expected that someone would do it. Then I started seeing messages from RPD (rumpunchdrunk) about how he looked into it all, found some, and in turn placed it in the mail for me. We exchanged a few e-mails so I could give him my shipping address. Now, I will remind you of one detail, I have never met RPD, so in a way this was scary. I did, however, hope for the best and hoped this was all legit. Over the years the human race has let me down so you can see why I was a little cautious. Sometimes a person just needs to let their guard down and roll the dice. RPD informed that a package was in the mail and to be looking out for it in the very near future.

Today was that day in the future. Today was the day I was called to the front office of my place of employment to pick up a package from the UK. Could it be true? Was it here? I felt like a kid running out to the mail box to meet the mail man because he had a package for me. That feeling of excitement and surprise that I had as a kid has never changed. I always get excited. I buy stuff from all over the world on eBay, Craigslist, and a multitude of other places, and I always get excited when the packages arrive. Maybe it’s true, we never actually grow up. But, wait, this post isn’t actually about me, my childhood, or my search for the perfect heat/food combinations.

The package has arrived. Now, I’m unable to find ways to thank RPD for his most gracious gift. I hope that RPD doesn’t mind that I’m doing a post about the grand deed that has been done. Since we, RPD and myself, are in different countries I thought this might be a good way to get my message out to share with the world what RPD has done for me. I know it is just chocolate, but it is the absolute gesture of kindness that has blown me away. RPD didn’t have to spend the time or the money for me. This is where I am going to leave it, I’m very happy that RPD has done this for me and I will be forever thankful for it. Wait? What does it taste like? I don’t know yet, I will save that for another post. So, without further ado, a big huge thank you to RPD for acquiring these (RPD sent me two) chocolate bars and sending them to me from the UK. I owe you big!

The Sting Of The Scorpion Blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Except where otherwise noted, all content on The Sting Of The Scorpion Blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. This means you are free to copy, distribute, or transmit any of "The Sting Of The Scorpion Blog' content. However, you must attribute the content to "The Sting Of The Scorpion Blog" in some easily identifiable way (preferably with a link back to the post from which the content originated). The contents of The Sting Of The Scorpion Blog cannot be used for any commercial purposes. You cannot alter, transform, or build new works from The Sting Of The Scorpion Blog's content. For a more detailed explanation of the rights granted under this license, please take a look at the license’s page on the Creative Commons web site, which includes a link to the full legal text.